Passive Voice

Question 1

How to Change from Active to Passive:

Answer 1

1. accusative object of active sentence to nominative subject of passive sentence
2. active verb to a tense of werden (same tense!) plus the past participle of verb in active sentence
3. subject tovon+ dative object in the passive sentence, if agent is mentioned

Question 2

Present Tense

Answer 2

Viele Studenten lesen diesen Roman. = Dieser Romanwirdvon vielen Studentengelesen.
Many students read this novel. = This novel is read by many students.

Question 3

Imperfect Tense

Answer 3

Viele Studenten lasen diesen Roman. = Dieser Romanwurdevon vielen Studentengelesen.
Many students read this novel. = This novel was read by many students.

Question 4

Future Tense

Answer 4

Viele Studenten werden diesen Roman lesen. = Dieser Romanwirdvon vielen Studentengelesen werden.
Many students will read this novel. = This novel will be read by many students.

Question 5

Present Perfect Tense

Answer 5

Viele Studenten haben diesen Roman gelesen. = Dieser Romanistvon vielen Studentengelesen worden.
Many students have read this novel. = This novel has been read by many students.

Question 6

Past Perfect Tense

Answer 6

Viele Studenten hatten diesen Roman gelesen. = Dieser Romanwarvon vielen Studentengelesen worden.
Many students had read this novel. = This novel had been read by many students.

*Notice that in the passive voice, the past participle ofwerdeniswordenand not geworden.

Question 7

Durch

Answer 7

Durchcan replacevonwhen the agent is an impersonal force (fire, wind, etc.); but it cannot be used if preceded by a limiting word (such as an article or adjective.)

Question 8

Passive with Modals

Answer 8

Shifts in tense will only affect the modal part of the sentence. The infinitive forms of the past participles are used with modals in the passive voice as well. And where you might expect something likeDas Haus hat werden müssen verkauft, the actual construction isDas Haus hat verkauft werden müssenbecause of the double infinitive construction. Double infinitives always go to the end of the sentence, but you only need to worry about these in the present perfect and past perfect tenses.

Question 9

Passive Infinitives

Answer 9

To be + past participle in English is translated as the past participle + werden in German. With a passive infinitive, usually only the present or simple past of modals is used.
Die Tiere konntengerettet werden.The animals were ableto be saved.